Sunday, August 17, 2008

Hunt Valley Weekend KO: First session

We entered the Weekend Knockout with our old friends UK and Mullet. With 11,000 MPs on our team and only 54 teams in the event, we expected to make Bracket I, but when the sheets came out, we ended up in the middle of II. There were ten teams in the bracket, so there were two three-ways and two head-to-head matches in the first match. We fell into a three-way.

As always, I'll post what happened at the table in the Comments. If you're reading this via RSS or LiveJournal feed, come to the site and find out.

First quarter:

MY LHO made some insane calls. At unfavorable, she bid 3D over my 2S with xxx xx Axxxx ATx. Apparently her partner had seen her overcalls before-- she competed to 4D only over pard's 3S with a hand I'd be making a slam try on. +100. This was a quiet six boards, except for our teammates' going for 800 at unfavorable in a weak notrump escape auction. We were down 2-12 after six.

Second quarter:

(A) KJ862 KJT652 8 Q, white vs. red
RHO passes in first chair, and you?

(B) K KT4 AKT52 8642, all red
LHO opens 1H, pard overcalls 1S, RHO bids 1NT. Your bid.

(C) 963 54 AJ8752 K8, all white
Pard opens 1H in first seat, and RHO overcalls 1S. You make a negative double (do you? What would you do if your minors were switched?), and LHO leaps majestically to 4S. Pard's in there with 5C, righty passes, and it's up to you.

After six boards, we led 35-0.

Third quarter (down 2-12):

Again, nothing very spectacular our way. The big swing hand was the opponents flailing their way to slam off three bullets for win 11. The final score of the match was 27-15.

Fourth quarter (up 35-0):

(D) 84 A7 KQT84 9872, white vs. red
RHO quickly passed, and when I pulled out my Stop card prior to opening 2D (which I strongly believe is the right call), lefty disinterestedly pulled out a pass card. We certainly could have called the Director and exercised our options, but it didn't seem too necessary in this match. Pard passed 2D, and righty balanced with 2H. On the table action, do you have a call?

This was the quiet set we wanted it to be, and won the match 42-2. So onward to the quarterfinals! With six teams left in the bracket, it was another three-way. We drew the other survivor of our ring (the slam off three aces team) and our old friends Cheech and Chong.

Stay tuned.

2 comments:

McKenzie said...

(A) I opened 1H. With a hand this weak in high cards and this shape, I often open 1S, but the hearts seemed too good to skip. Pard made a game raise with 2NT. RHO came in with 3C. 3D seemed convenient. LHO doubled, pard redoubled (showing the DA), righty fingered 4D for a while then passed, I bid a 'waiting' 3H, pard bid 4H. Now RHO came in with 5D. I bid 5H (I know we're off the black aces) ending the auction. +450. Serves you right, righty... an immediate 5D call really sticks it to us.

(B) I made an "I don't think you're making" double. Pard took this out to 2C (she had a weakish 5314), and righty bid 2D. Yay! Double again. LHO pulled to 2NT. Huzzah! I pounded that off to end the auction. We could have pulled sticks and wheels from this, but were not unhappy with going toll-free.

(C)[I still double even if I'm 2=6 in the minors. It's harder, though.] I made an ambiguous call of 5D. Partner made a good 'discovery play' of 5S, to see if I had diamonds or was cuebidding for clubs. I bid 6D and bought as dummy none AKxxx KQx Axxxx. +920 - win 14 opposite 4H -1 at the other table.

(D) I made what was described as a "good poker bid, bad bridge bid" of 3C. Pard made the right (in abstract) decision to pass with 4423. I should be 5-5 for this bid. With 6-4 I'd rebid 2NT, and with 5-4 I'd STFU. 3C was just in for win 5.

Noble said...

(A) 1h. Switch the hT and s6 and I would open 1s. I am not planning to reverse. Let's hope partner doesn't bypass a 4-card spade suit!

(B) Pass. I tend to believe the opponents in this auction. This won't be fun to defend (or play) at all if partner has a stiff diamond.

(C) Dbl/pass. I think it's an auto negative double. Partner's 5c should show a relative lack of flexibility since partner knows we could have a hand like this for double (we don't have to have both minors) and could choose other actions, such as double or 4NT. Maybe I should be converting to 5h, but I certainly wouldn't bid 5d.

(D) Pass. If you made my hand 3154 I think it's an auto double (presuming partner reads this as takeout). Here we have 1 fewer diamond than we could and that means more defense, plus we have the Ace of trumps. If I was going to bid something (which would be a poker bid based on the conditions given) then I would bid 2NT which should show 6-4 minors rather than 3c which should show 5-5.